A Memorable Hubei Lotus Root Dinner

By Zhang Qingnan & Chen Yixuan

A video from Guizhou Satellite TV features a Ukrainian beauty named Natalia Soloviova, showing off her talent in the Chinese language.Though she was something of an expert on China, she never ate any Chinese lotus root after coming to the country. She just felt the taste of it wouldn’t be good. No matter how other people tried to tempt her, she remained unaffected and wouldn’t partake of it. Until one day five years later, a man named James took her to a restaurant in Guangzhou and ordered her a dressing of crispy lotus root slices.When she unwittingly praised the dish as sumptuous, James told her that this was Chinese lotus root, which caused her to lament that she had been living in China for five years in vain.

After watching this video,Joseph recalled Raphael from Kenya. One day in July, Joseph texted Raphael asking if he had eaten lotus root. To his surprise, the latter replied with a resounding “No.” Joseph was taken aback and asked him how he had not eaten a single morsel during his five-year stay in Wuhan. “If you don’t eat lotus root in Wuhan, it is like not eating PIZZA in Italy.” Raphael answered with regret that no one had ever mentioned this dish to him, so he had never had a chance to try it. Joseph then promised to invite him to a fine dinner of lotus root.

At a dinner party on Friday,Raphael arrived with some of his African brothers as promised.Joseph and his friend Jessie had ordered all the lotus root dishes that could be eaten in the season: Pork Rib and Lotus Root Soup, Fried Lotus Root Slices,Lotus-pond Three Treasures,Ice Lotus Seed, Hot and Sour Lotus Root, Marinated Lotus Root with Shredded Pork, and the like. Everyone drank beer while savoring the lotus root dishes, and praising the flavor to high heaven. During the dinner,Joseph constantly interspersed stories about Hubei people’s life, economy, culture, and even physical fitness in relation to lotus root between courses.

荷塘A lotus pond

難忘的湖北藕宴

文/張清南 陳伊璇

“貴州衛視”播出過一段視頻，烏克蘭美女喬麗婭漢語很棒，但她來中國后，一直不吃中國藕，認為藕不好吃，無論別人怎么推薦，她還是緘默不享。直到五年后的一天，約瑟·詹姆士把她帶到廣州的一家餐廳，給她點了一道香酥藕夾，她品嘗后大贊美味。詹姆士告訴她，這就是中國藕的味道，喬麗婭方才后悔，白在中國呆了五年。

約瑟看過這段視頻后，想起了來自肯尼亞的拉費爾。今年7月的一天，約瑟突然給拉費爾發微信，問他吃過藕沒有。這令他很意外，回復“沒有”。約瑟感到吃驚，問他在武漢幾年時間怎么會沒吃過藕呢？到武漢不吃藕，那不就相當于到意大利不吃一頓PIZZA？他遺憾地說，沒人特別給他提過這種菜，所以一直沒機會接觸。約瑟隨即答應，一定要請他吃一頓藕宴。

一個周五的晚宴時間，拉費爾帶著他的幾個非洲兄弟如約而至。約瑟和朋友杰茜已經點齊這個季節可以吃到的所有跟藕有關的菜肴：排骨藕湯、炸藕夾、荷塘三寶、冰鎮蓮子米、酸辣藕丁、泡藕帶炒肉絲等，大家邊喝啤酒，邊品味藕菜，贊美之辭不絕。席間，約瑟不斷穿插介紹藕與湖北人民的生活、經濟、文化，甚至體質等息息相關的故事。

約瑟說，藕是上天給湖北人的特殊恩惠。湖北人愛吃藕，一年四季吃，無藕不成席。春吃芽，也叫藕帶，夏吃蓮子（也叫蓮米）賞荷花，秋冬燜藕湯。湖北人特別愛吃排骨藕湯，在計劃經濟時代，武漢人排長隊買排骨還是一道風景呢！

藕的營養成分對人體大有好處，常吃藕，強身健體，有些人體疾病，尤其是一些婦科疑難雜癥，可以通過吃藕來調理康復。

湖北的藕最負盛名。地處長江中下游平原的湖北，被譽為“千湖之省”，蓮藕種植面積及產量居中國第一，一年產240萬噸。蓮藕種植和加工是湖北省的一項特色產業，食品研究專家研發了保鮮藕、保鮮蓮子、鹽漬藕、蓮餡月餅、泡藕帶、排骨藕湯、蓮藕面條、藕粉、荷葉茶、野藕汁等系列產品，通過“漢新歐”運往亞歐各地。世界各地的人們，都可以通過“電商平臺”品嘗到中國藕的醉美風味。

約瑟開玩笑地說：“你們應該把藕帶回國去發展種植，把中國人發明的藕—稻、菜—藕—稻、藕—荸薺、早藕—泥蒿、蓮魚共生等20種多種高效種養模式帶回國去。豐富國民生活，增強國民體質，增加國民收入。”

說到致富，約瑟舉了個鮮活的例子。武漢有個叫吳近貨的人，11歲開始就跟蓮藕打交道。八年前，他和朋友合作成立公司，將蓮藕產供銷做成了“一條龍”。目前，公司已發展到種植面積7000畝，交易、加工、保鮮、冷藏、冷鏈配送一條龍服務，每年出口3000多噸，賺錢不少，還帶動周邊村民100余人就業脫貧。

約瑟問拉費爾：“你知道，藕在中國文化中代表什么樣的人，象征什么樣的品格嗎？”拉費爾眼里露出好奇的神情。約瑟介紹說，自古以來，中國的文人墨客盛贊蓮藕，北宋理學家周敦頤的“出淤泥而不染，濯清漣而不妖”，是中國人朗朗上口的名句，贊美的就是蓮藕的高潔品質和不同流合污的品格。

蓮子米Lotus seeds

Joseph said that lotus roots are God’s special gift to Hubei people.They love eating lotus root all year round, practically with every meal. In spring, they eat lotus shoots and chew lotus seeds. They enjoy lotus flowers in summer,and stew lotus root soup in autumn and winter while lotus seeds can be easily made into medicine. They especially love eating sparerib with lotus root soup. In the era of the planned economy, Wuhan people used to line up all over the city to buy spareribs. The lotus root is very nutritious, so regular consumption of it improves one’s health and helps to fight off some diseases.Various gynecological diseases, in particular, can be treated with lotus root.

Hubei lotus root is the most well-known variety. Hubei, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is known as “The Province of a Thousand Lakes.”The lotus root growing area and yield there rank first in China, with an annual output of 2.4 million tons. The planting and processing of lotus root has become a special industry in the province. The food research experts have developed a series of products such as fresh lotus root, fresh lotus seeds, salted lotus root, lotus root moon-cakes,salted lotus shoots, rib and lotus root soup, lotus root noodles,lotus root starch, lotus leaf tea,wild lotus root juice and so on,and transported them to Asia and Europe through China Railway Express (Wuhan). People all over the world can savor the flavor of the Chinese lotus root through various E-commerce platforms.

Joseph joked, “You should bring back lotus root for planting, along with 20 kinds of high-efficiency planting modes such as lotus rootrice, vegetable-lotus root-rice, lotus root-water chestnuts, early lotus root-mud Artemisia and lotusfish symbiosis, invented by the Chinese people. This has enriched the Chinese people’s life, enhanced their physique and increased the nation’s income, and so it will do in your country.”

When it came to getting rich,Joseph gave a vivid example.A man named Wu Jinhuo in Wuhan has started dealing in lotus root when he was 11 years old. Eight years ago, he went into business with his friends making and marketing lotus root products. At present, his company has developed to 7000 acres of planting, forming a coordinated service for trading, processing,preservation, cold storage and cold chain distribution, exporting more than 3000 tons each year,and making a mint in the process.More than 100 people from the neighboring villages have been lifted out of poverty through employment at or trading with his company.

Joseph asked Raphael, “Do you know what kind of person lotus root represents in the Chinese culture and what kind of character it represents?” Raphael’s eyes flashed with curiosity. Joseph clued him in on the fact that China’s scholars have highly praised lotus root since time immemorial. The catchy verse,“How pristine it rises from its bed of slime and how modestly it reposes on the clear pool” for every Chinese was written by Zhou Dunyi, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty(960-1127). What a high and clean quality and non-congenial personality of the lotus root! The Chinese people adore this quality.

Jessie recommended Raphael and others watching A Bite of China—the First Quarter. The first episode Nature’s Gift detailed the processing of Hubei’s Jiayu lotus root, as it comes from the bottom of the lake to the top of the dinner table. There are a number of cooking methods, like roasting, simmering, shallowfrying, quick-frying, deep-frying,sautéing, boiling, stir-frying, slidecooking, poaching, steaming,grilling, baking, half-frying, and pot-stewing, all of which can turn lotus root into a variety of dishes including lotus root sandwiches,lotus root soup, lotus root slices,lotus root starch and so on. Zou Zhiping, an associate professor at Hubei University of Economics and a Chinese culinary master,wrote a book entitled Lotus Root Dishes in China, which detailed the cooking methods of lotus roots,offering more than 80 traditional and innovative lotus root dishes,with diverse techniques such as stir-frying, stewing, steaming and deep-frying.

After the dinner, Raphael and his friends thanked Joseph for the meaningful meal. Raphael said, “Not only have we savored the delicacy of lotus root in all its different flavors and forms, but we have also learned a lot about it. We will find a way to plant lotus root in Kenya.”

(Translation: Qing Run)

杰茜推薦拉費爾等人觀看《舌尖上的中國》第一季第一集《自然的饋贈》，其中詳細介紹了湖北嘉魚蓮藕從湖底淤泥中挖出到搬上餐桌的過程。藕本是簡單的食材，通過烹飪技藝中的燒、煨、煎、烹、炸、熘、煮、炒、滑、汆、蒸、烤、煸、鹵等等工藝，可以做成藕夾、藕湯、藕丁、藕片、藕粉等等不同花樣的菜品。湖北經濟學院副教授、中國烹飪大師鄒志平專門寫作了《中國蓮藕菜》，詳細記載藕的各種烹飪方法，介紹了80多道傳統及創新蓮藕菜品，色味俱全，令人看了垂涎欲滴，嘖嘖稱奇。

宴后，拉費爾和朋友們紛紛對約瑟表示感謝，這是一頓有意義的大餐。拉費爾說：“我們不僅嘗到了不同味道和不同做法的美味藕，還學到了很多關于藕的文化知識。我們會想辦法把藕種到肯尼亞去。”

藕宴上，眾人聆聽約瑟講藕與湖北的故事 Guests at the lotus root dinner

拉費爾與藕合影 Raphael and lotus root